Yours [Prim/Cato]

Chapter 20 - Day Four

Peeta's been here since he climbed into the cave two days ago, and I want him gone. There was something off about him. He seemed a little too vulnerable, when really it should be me that was acting in that way in front of him. He jumped into our cave, claiming that he was just trying to find someplace to hide when he happened to stumble upon this cave. The cave that I was in. Rue thought everything was fine and that we should just trust him because he came from my district and was, therefore, a 'trustworthy friend', but I felt something was up.

The Cato topic never came up. I avoided it, I know he was avoiding it, and quite frankly, I was happy that we were keeping it away. It would only cause problems, and now that we're here in the Games, things are much more serious, and a little anger can turn into an unexpected death. I was just hoping that Peeta didn't hold grudges. He could be pretending to be helpless so that he could find a way to sneak and murder me.

We didn't let him keep watch over us last night after I convinced Rue to believe that something wasn't right. I didn't want us to go to sleep and not wake up the next morning. Everything was so confusing. The night before and the morning of the Games, he was pissed as all hell at me for the Cato situation, but as soon as we make it in here, he finds me and wants to be allies? It just didn't make sense.

Him being here just made me miss Cato. I know I'm supposed to be upset, afraid, whatever, but I need him. I need his strength to give me a little inkling of courage. I need his arms to wrap around me and protect me from the universe. I needed his hands, his destructive hands, to rub soothingly over my back. I had been on edge since the moment I left him in the greenhouse on the roof, and I knew the only cure would be one touch. Just a single electric zap of life from his fingertips would be enough.

I needed my knight in shining armor.

Rue, Peeta and I begin day four, searching for food and sneaking to the pond for water. Nothing much happened on day three. The only action was the death of a guy and girl from fireballs. I had no idea how many of us were left, but I was sure that it was less than half.

Anyway, back to the water. We knew that the Careers' base was set up there so we couldn't get any water; yesterday night we went and saw them all sitting around a fire. No one spotted us, thankfully, but we didn't take a chance to get any water. So, today we were going to stake out the pond until the Careers go on their hunt, just like they did everyday, and we would be gone long before they got back.

Peeta was extraordinarily eager to get to the pond today, which just set off another alarm in my mind. I stayed alert, but said nothing of the matter.

The trail we followed was enough that we could see the Careers at the base, but not too close that they would see or hear us.

"So what's the plan again?" Rue asks as walk, our eyes and ears open and alert for any hunt we could find. We hadn't been lucky enough to get a decent hunt in the past day, so today, we were hoping for some miracle.

"We're going to hide, one behind the other in the trees, and stake out the Careers' base so that when they leave, we can get some water," Peeta answers for me.

"Right." Rue nods. "Wait, why can't we just use you, Prim?" she speaks up.

My eyebrows furrow and I stare back at her. "What are you talking about? How on earth will you use me? I'm definitely not running in there for water! They'll kill me!"

Rue smirks and rolls her eyes. "But you and I both know that Cato would never let them hurt you," she claims, nudging me on the arm. I winced at the pain in my arm but felt myself blush. Firstly because of thinking about Cato, but mostly because Peeta was right behind us. I didn't want Cato to be mentioned at all because there was still underlying tension that had yet to be resolved between us three. I knew Peeta was frowning behind me, but I didn't want to look. It would just make everything more obvious than it already was.